Popularity of plastic surgery has increased many folds over the past
few years and the statistical data shows that it keeps growing. Due to
advances in technology, affordability, and the speed with which these
procedures can be performed, several people undergo plastic surgery
for medical reasons and some choose cosmetic surgery to look
younger or for better appearance. The procedures can significantly
change the facial regions both locally and globally, altering the
appearance, facial features and texture, thereby posing a serious
challenge to face recognition systems. Existing face recognition
algorithms generally rely on local and global facial features and
any variation can affect the recognition performance. This paper
introduces plastic surgery as a new dimension for face recognition
algorithms.